Your House on Zillow, Homes.com, etc

Jules

Jules

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Do you feel vulnerable having information about your home available on sites like Zillow, Homes.com, Remax, or anything similar. Anyone can look at these, including the bad guys.

If you have valuables visible, they could be targeted. They have the layout, the windows, a security system. Today I picked a couple at random and could see the door locks, nice art, signs that owners are elderly. The value of your home is there and some have your mortgage.

I read that on some home sale sites they can change the photos so it’s not really the interior of your house. If possible, I’ll want to do this when it’s time to list our home.
 

No. Sheriff and the Good Lord willing, this small farm won’t be up for sale until after I’m gone. Which means my brother will have already cleaned this place out.

I don’t have anything valuable to most of the world anyway. all of my money is tied up in horse stuff, that most of the world would have no idea what its use was unless they own a horse.
 

That Lady in PA said:
Vulnerable? Not in the least.
The exterior photo taken from the street doesn't give anyone much to go on... and that is all there is.
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Many people do indeed include photos of the insides of their homes. Hopefully they'd have sense enough to remove valuable items.
Jules, re your OP...I think the way things are today, with all the scammers and other bad actors, I would feel vulnerable.
 
DHH said:
I think Jules is referring to the homes currently for sale. Yes, if your home isn’t currently listed, it only shows the exterior.
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Then anyone, including the bad guys she mentions, can get inside the house under the auspices of buying.
Also, sellers are told to remove various things when selling, including valuables.
 
Jules said:
Do you feel vulnerable having information about your home available on sites like Zillow, Homes.com, Remax, or anything similar. Anyone can look at these, including the bad guys.

If you have valuables visible, they could be targeted. They have the layout, the windows, a security system. Today I picked a couple at random and could see the door locks, nice art, signs that owners are elderly. The value of your home is there and some have your mortgage.

I read that on some home sale sites they can change the photos so it’s not really the interior of your house. If possible, I’ll want to do this when it’s time to list our home.
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Just in general having valuables on display invites thieves. I personally prefer to be "below the radar". Our home is not conspicuous, is not the most elegant in the neighborhood by any means, just comfortable.

Edit: I just googled my address, Redfin has photos from when the previous owners listed, including interior pics. What a blast from the past!

fastpeoplesearch shows my wife as owner under her maiden name, and a ton of previous addresses and phone numbers, one of which is our current landline. I'm going to do a takedown request with fastpeoplesearch.
 
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Call me old fashioned or cautious but for me some things still require the human touch, especially big ticket items. If I'm selling a house, someone will just have to walk into a realtors office. I will put a for sale sign in a car window with my phone number if selling a car. I actually won't put anything valuable online. I never even use my real name or picture.
 
More o
Oldeagle66 said:
Call me old fashioned or cautious but for me some things still require the human touch, especially big ticket items. If I'm selling a house, someone will just have to walk into a realtors office. I will put a for sale sign in a car window with my phone number if selling a car. I actually won't put anything valuable online. I never even use my real name or picture.
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More often than not, I just put stuff on Craigslist for free and give the address of my condo complex and leave the item by the street. If it’s something I want to sell, it has to be small enough that I can have the exchange and my local police department.
 
It seems Zillow and others uses Google street view if they don't have prior sales photos of your house. (At least in the US). If it bothers you then you can have your property blurred out by Google. You would have to google how.

Fortunately my street view is just woods, you can't see my house . I get a chuckle when I get spam mail saying they want to buy my house with a picture of trees.
 
Many homes listed in my area have interior photos, but only if the owner allows. I'd have no problem with prospective buyers seeing photos of the outside of my home. It's there for the whole world to see anyway.

Most realtors will not show homes these days unless the person looking at the homes has been pre-approved to purchase, which provides at least some layer of safety against unqualified individuals entering homes.
 
DHH said:
I think Jules is referring to the homes currently for sale. Yes, if your home isn’t currently listed, it only shows the exterior.
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I'm not sure. . . I've found several of our old houses online at Zillow, Redfin, etc. They're not on the market but interior photos—quite a few, actually—are available on those sites.
 
My house isn't going to catch anyones attention as some place to rob, so no, I'm not worried.

I will admit though I have used realter sites and Google earth to look at homes and properties. I'm just curious, not a stalker.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Many homes listed in my area have interior photos, but only if the owner allows. I'd have no problem with prospective buyers seeing photos of the outside of my home. It's there for the whole world to see anyway.

Most realtors will not show homes these days unless the person looking at the homes has been pre-approved to purchase, which provides at least some layer of safety against unqualified individuals entering homes.
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Another thing about showing the interior of a house besides looking at people's belongings, would be someone up to no good would be able to see the layout of someone's house. Even though it might not be the present owners interior, they've been known to show previous owners home layout of the home that the present owner is living in.
 
TeePee said:
Another thing about showing the interior of a house besides looking at people's belongings, would be someone up to no good would be able to see the layout of someone's house. Even though it might not be the present owners interior, they've been known to show previous owners home layout of the home that the present owner is living in.
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Thanks for a point well taken, but it's unclear to me why my post was quoted to make it.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Thanks for a point well taken, but it's unclear to me why my post was quoted to make it.
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I'm not sure either. Someone else said something to me about it when I first started but he or she got real hateful with me about it. .Maybe it's something I did wrong. I'm still trying to navigate this forum site and how to respond appropriately to things.
 

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